Best July Art

9 new art exhibitions bringing respite to Houston in July

Houston could use an artful respite this month. Luckily most of our museums, galleries and public spaces have reopened their doors to give us some peaceful, chilled moments to contemplate a little beauty. From intangible laser sculptures to outdoor soundscapes to portraits that tell stories of survival, to cool summer Saturday nights at the MFAH, there’s a lot of art variety in Houston this month and opportunities for a much deserved art break.

“Time and Space” at Artechouse (ongoing)
The inaugural presentation of exhibitions at Houston’s newest immersive art space, Artechouse, consists of three separate art shows that touch on themes of time and space, from a cosmic to subatomic level. “Beyond the Light,” an Artechouse Studio creation made in collaboration with NASA, translates real NASA data and technology into multimedia exhibits and installations, including an immersive cinematic room using some of the latest images from the James Webb Space and Hubble Space Telescopes. “Intangible Forms” is a survey of work from award-winning Japanese multimedia artist Shohei Fujimoto who uses choreographed lasers, strobes, and moving lights to play with our understanding of reality and light. Making its U.S. debut, the third exhibit “Eternal Life” was originally commissioned by the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm and uses Nobel Prize winning scientific and literary works as inspiration for an abstract, immersive light and video installation.

“Art in the Park” at Hermann Park (ongoing)
If it’s been a while since you’ve taken an art walk in Hermann Park, you might be surprised by what’s in bloom this summer. The Play Your Park, a $55.5 million capital campaign aimed at improving and maintaining Hermann Park, has planted the seeds of a dramatic new vision for Hermann Park. The Commons, the park’s recently opened new play gardens, elevates the traditional park playground into a new art form.

But the Play Your Park campaign has also renewed their public art initiative with two, new, large-scale art installations. With the Commons opening, the park has unveiled, “Scattering Surface,” a 16-foot high sculpture, composed of thousands of welded stainless steel circles, which reflect light and scatter the visible surroundings into tiny pieces. And this month brings the installation of “Canopy,” by Anthony Suber, a Houstonian and UH professor. The artist designed the enormous metal and glass structure in the form of an enlarged, abstract monstera plant to represent enlightenment and spiritual harmony.

“Prints & Drawings: Selections from the MFAH Collection” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through September 1)
The MFAH’s collection is so vast it can’t all be on view at any one time. This special, temporary presentation of 60 works gives us a chance to see the breadth, depth, and diversity of their print and drawing collection. The exhibition contains a variety of works rarely seen together, including drawings by Hungarian Jewish artist Ilka Gedő, prints by conceptual artist Carroll Dunham, and a selection of print and drawing self-portraits of artists and prints from the influential New York printmaking studio Universal Limited Art Editions.

“Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through September 15)
Art many times reflects the times in which it was created and can become a revealing chronicler of history. Case in point, this monumental exhibition at the MFAH gives visitors an insightful view into the enormous cultural and technological changes within Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Featuring over 150 objects including paintings, prints, photographs, and sculpture, as well as superb examples of turn of the century enamel, lacquer, embroidery, and textiles, Meiji Modern tells the story of Japan’s cultural transition from almost 200 years of near total isolation into a distinct presence in global society. The exhibition also features several recently discovered masterpieces of Japanese art, many of which have never been shown publicly.

“Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan provides a fascinating window onto this transformative era, a collision of culture and identity that forged newly modern approaches to esthetics, trade, and statehood in Japan,” MFAH director Gary Tinterow said in a statement. “It also shows to great effect the unprecedented achievements of Japanese artisans and artists, culminating centuries of technical perfection.“

“The Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through September 2025)
This 36-channel immersive video installation by influential painter, photographer, and Pop artist, David Hockney, was first seen as a part of the MFAH’s 2021 exhibition, “Hockney – Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature,” and now joins the museum’s permanent collection. Even when introduced to museum-goers amidst the vibrant Van Gogh artwork, it called viewers to stop, sit, and contemplate time, nature, and the human subjective perception of them both. Hockney chronicled the change of seasons over a year along the same wooded road in Yorkshire, England, using nine cameras at different angles and exposures to film an afternoon in the same place during spring, summer, fall, and winter. Look for the installation in the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, joining some of our other world-renowned immersive large-scale works like Kusuama’s “Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity.”

“Phillip Pyle II: So Far So Good” at Houston Museum of African American Heritage Heritage (July 12-September 14)
In this survey of the Houston visual artist, photographer, and “agitator” HMAAH figuratively turns over “the keys of the museum” to Pyle to better reveal the design, humor, and craft of his work. These pieces meld together images from mass media and advertising to create complex visions with a comic touch that also questions cultural values and beliefs.

“By blending photography, digital art, and performance, Pyle creates visually arresting pieces that challenge perception and the history we have been told,” HMAAC chief curator Christopher Blay said. “His works often juxtapose historical and contemporary elements, creating a dialogue between the past and the present.”

“The Talking Back of Miss Valentine Jones” at Houston Museum of African American Heritage (July 12-September 14)
Each year, HMAAC awards the works of an emerging Houston-based artist with the Bert Long Jr. Prize. This exhibition showcases this year’s winner, Shavon Aja Morris, who repurposes found imagery into photographic collages to offer a renewed encounter with images of Black American woman. For this show, Morris has gathered images from vintage issues of Ebony Magazine to create collage works that explore themes of resilience and theories of genetic memory, the idea that environmental memories can persist in genetics for 14 generations.

"Facing Survival | David Kassan" at Holocaust Museum Houston (July 12, 2024-January 25, 2025)
Acclaimed for his paintings that balance a naturalistic depiction of faces with abstract backgrounds, David Kassan’s portraits tell complex tales. For this extraordinary exhibition, Kassan uses his art to tell the individual stories of more than 24 Holocaust survivors. Before beginning each portrait, Kassan engaged with each survivor, filming their testimonies and learning of their lives, strength, and fortitude. The accompanying preparatory sketches he makes for each painting also tell the tale of that artistic journey getting to understand each subject.

A highlight of the exhibition for her fellow Houstonians will likely be the portrait of Ruth Steinfeld, whose parents released her and her sister to the care of the French Jewish humanitarian organization OEuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) to save their lives. After spending the remainder of the war in French orphanages and with a foster family, their grandfather brought them to the United States in 1946. Steinfeld’s portrait includes her displaying the French Legion of Honor medal. This highest honor in France was bestowed upon Steinfeld for her continued role in teaching young people about the Holocaust.

“Invisible Music” at City Place (July 20-September 15)
As part of their initiative to to weave artistic, experiential elements into the everyday fabric of this North Houston development, City Place has commissioned Austin-based artist/musician Steve Parker to create a new experiential musical journey for visitors. Parker uses repurposed brass instruments to create musical sculptures that will become a symphonic meditation on nature. Consisting of sound-trumpeting assemblages perched on floating platforms within the “cat eye” reservoir of the park’s main pond, these musical sculptures create a soundscape adapted from French composer Eric Satie’s “Furniture Music” and set against a backdrop of nature sounds, including insects, birds, and bats. Along with the floating pieces, interactive sculptures placed along the greenspace surrounding the pond will allow participants to alter the soundscape’s overall musical composition.

$\u200bDavid Hockney's \u201cThe Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods\u201d$

Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

David Hockney's “The Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods” will be on view once again at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Best May Art

MFAH's blockbuster modern art exhibit and 7 more openings in Houston this month

as Pablo Picasso, Woman in a Multicolored Hat, part of the MFAH's upcoming Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen exhibit, opening May 20

Image courtesy MFAH

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen (Pablo Picasso, Woman in a Multicolored Hat, 1939, oil on canvas, Museum Berggruen, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. © 2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

May brings some of the biggest art shows and museum exhibitions of the year to town. Some fly in with patriotic fanfare, while others give us a rare opportunity to gaze at European masterworks. Whether someone is looking for irreverent performance art at the CAMH, wants to get in touch with whimsical spirits at Moody Art Center, buy art for a good cause at Silver Street, or get ready for the World Cup at Sawyer Yards, Houston artists, galleries, and museums have a show for all tastes.

“Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation” at Houston Museum of Natural Science (now through May 25)
We’ll call this one the art of democracy. This exhibition 250 years in the making might not fit the usual definition of "art," but this touring presentation of Founding-era documents at HMNS has to make this month's must-see list. The National Archives and Records Administration, in partnership with the National Archives Foundation, set aloft this flying tour of some of the nation’s most historical documents, complete with their own plane. Houston is one of only eight U.S. cities where the Freedom Plane will land. The original National Archives records featured in the exhibition are traveling together for the first time. Just some of the historic documents included in the exhibition are an original engraving of the Declaration of Independence; George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr’s Oaths of Allegiance, 1778; and the Secret Printing of the Constitution in Draft Form, 1787.

“As our nation approaches its 250th anniversary, there is no more fitting tribute than bringing these original documents, leaving the National Archives together for the very first time, directly to the American people,” says Joel Bartsch, president and CEO of HMNS. “From George Washington’s oath as a Continental Army officer to the Treaty of Paris that secured our independence, these are not replicas or reproductions. They are the genuine records, and Houston will have the rare privilege of experiencing them in person this May.”

“20th Annual Empty Bowls” at Silver Street Studios (May 15 and 16)
For two decades this beloved grassroots fundraising event has given art lovers the chance to pick up one of a kind, handcrafted ceramic bowl-shaped artworks for just $25 dollars each and helped to serve up millions of meals to the hungry. Over the years, Empty Bowls Houston has raised over $1.2 million for the Houston Food Bank. The lunch fundraiser is a collaboration between Houston-area ceramists, woodturners, and artists working in all media and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. A special ticketed preview party on May 15 will feature light bites, beer and wine, live music, a pottery throw down event with local potters, and a chance to purchase a bowl early before the main event on May 16. Archway Gallery will also host its own annual Empty Bowls exhibition throughout May.

“No Longer, Not Yet” at Art League (May 15-July 19)
This exhibition of mixed media and fiber sculptures from Houston-based artist Marisol Valencia is the culmination of Valencia volunteering at a Houston-area shelter serving migrant women and children. To create the works in the show, Valencia uses material imbued with meaning, including fibers sourced from rural Mexican communities where migration often shapes daily life; bedsheets and pillows gathered from the shelter; and porcelain pieces inscribed with collected definitions of “home.” At the center of the exhibition will be a large cascading crochet sculpture made in collaboration with women and volunteers at the shelter.

“Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen” at Museum of Fine Arts (May 20-September 13)
Houston claims another first as the MFAH hosts the U.S. debut of this monumental touring exhibition of masterworks by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, and other major artists of postwar Europe. The exhibition will also tell the story of influential gallerist Heinz Berggruen and his relationship with the artists and collecting world. From the 1940s into the 1990s, Heinz Berggruen assembled a singular collection of hundreds of modern masterworks, many directly from the artists, and then in 2000, Berggruen placed the collection with the German state. The collection is now housed in the Museum Berggruen in Berlin-Charlottenburg as part of the Berlin State Museums/Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage.

“It is especially rewarding to introduce our audiences to the life and legacy of Heinz Berggruen — a pioneering art dealer, publisher, and collector whom I was privileged to know and work with for more than two decades,” remarks MFAH director Gary Tinterow on bringing the exhibition to Houston.

“Ballet of the Masses” at Sawyer Yards (May 21-July 25)
As Houston gets ready for the World Cup, local artists score their own kind of goals with this exhibition of artful soccer balls. Over 40 Houston artists have put a unique spin on a regulation sized fútbol — turning them into sculptural pieces. Organizers will suspend the works from the ceiling of Sabine Street Studios' North Gallery to create a kind of celestial soccer constellation. Together, these works will celebrate the dynamism and joy within sports and art.

“Never Forgotten” at Sabine Street Studios (May 21-July 25)
This powerful exhibition comes from a unique collaboration between Texas Center for the Missing, Houston Police Department Forensic Artists, and Sabine Street Studios, all dedicated to bringing the missing home. Three local forensic artists: Thurston Johnson, Bryan Bradley, and Kristen Aloysius have created age-progression portraits of missing persons in the hopes of reuniting families. Beyond showcasing real art, “Never Forgotten” was organized to shine a light on each individual case and continue raising awareness of the missing in our community. Sabine Street Studios will also host special programming in conjunction with the show, including a workshop on forensic drawing and drawing portraits based on memories.

“Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People” at Contemporary Arts Museum (May 22-November 1)
Acclaimed New York-based conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll has spent over four decades crossing disciplines of performance art, photography, architecture, writing, video making, and public art to explore issues of environmentalism, architectural and technological infrastructure, immigration, urban legislation, and identity, as well as tackling fundamental questions of the nature of art. And some of this exploration has taken place in Houston with Carroll’s continual transformation and documentation of a post-war home in the city’s Sharpstown neighborhood.

This first major museum survey of Carroll’s work takes inspiration from legendary comic Lenny Bruce’s 1965 autobiography of the same name, and emphasizes the irreverent and honest nature of Carroll’s work. The exhibition will bring renewed focus onto some of Carroll’s larger series, for example, “prototype 180,” the Sharpstown project, and “My Death Is Pending… Because,” consisting of separate pieces like video documentation of the artist driving and destroying a 1985 Buick in a demolition derby in 2017 and video of Carroll in a polar bear suit climbing a defunct smokestack in Memphis.

“Carroll is that unique kind of artist who continually reminds you of the power of art and artists to inspire radical change, in ourselves and the world,” notes senior curator Rebecca Matalon.

"Shapeshifters, Sprites, and Spirits” at Rice Moody Center for the Arts (May 29 - August 15)
Delve into a world of whimsical wonder in this new exhibition and the first Texas solo show of acclaimed Japanese artist Masako Miki’s sculptural work and installations. Influenced by diverse artistic movements from European Surrealism to Japanese manga, Miki creates sculptures from felt layered over wood armatures. Once completed, they resemble animated and large scale forms of everyday objects infused with personality and character.

Miki’s work is also inspired by folkloric traditions, especially Shinto animism and its belief that all beings and things contain a spirit. For the site specific Moody exhibition, Miki has also created works with a focus on yōkai, supernatural entities taking the form of beings, objects, and apparitions, and particularly those that appear in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Hyakki Yagyō), a legend dating to medieval Japan.

“My characters are ordinary but have extraordinary powers,” describes Miki of her sculptures. “They are secular but are attuned to sacred traditions. As a collective, they advocate for both individual and collective agency, and the importance of stories as unifying systems in today’s complex world.”

$as Pablo Picasso, Woman in a Multicolored Hat, part of the MFAH's upcoming Picasso\u2013Klee\u2013Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen exhibit, opening May 20$

Image courtesy MFAH

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